Website owners who have passed the initiation rite of getting traffic come face to face with another problem. Why don't people buy from their website and what they can do about it?

1. They don't feel safe
Give your visitors a feeling of safety by telling them about your secure ordering process, your privacy policy and how jealously you protect their email address, and your refund and contact information.

2. Lack of a professional look
Think about the professionals you know. Start from yourself and move on to the mechanics, engineers, doctors and lawyers you know. They all look different but they dress appropriately for their profession. A skilled mechanic who wears a doctor's stethoscope around his neck is as strange as a doctor who carries a wrench in his hand to the examination room.

Does your Website convey a message of unity and coordination by having a theme? Is it easy to navigate? Do graphics look home made? Are there too many ads, banners, and pop ups?

3. Lack of flow through AIDA
A quick look at the statistic of website marketing shows you how little website owners care about this. According to Overture in July 2004, 3380698 searched for the term “Web site promotion”, 396562 searched for “Web site design” and only 365 looked for “Web site writing.” In the same month only 62 searched for “Web site headline.” Those 62 are the ones who are making the money.

AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire and action. This is the logical cycle that carries a mildly interested visitor through the steps leading to the action you propose. Does your website take the visitor through this process?

4. Too many features not enough benefits
Features are the shallow itemized list of product. No one cares about them. Benefits are the satisfying solutions to your visitors problems. They are eager for these solutions. Check your website sales copy. Are you emphasizing benefits or features?

5. Lack of ordering options
Give visitors options to order by credit cards, checks, money orders, and other forms of electronic payments. Take orders by phone, e-mail, web site, fax, mail, etc.

Just remember the more options you give them the more time it will take you to process these orders. If you are too busy, you may want to keep things completely automated and avoid fax, phone and mail orders.

6. Allowing procrastination
Do you give your visitors an urgency to buy now, a coupon that expires tonight, a free bonus that will not be offered again? Something that they cannot pass up? Caution: Keep your promise. If you say a coupon expires tomorrow, replace it tomorrow. You are building a reputation.

7. No reason to come back
People usually don't purchase the first time they visit. Do you offer your visitors a reason to come back? Offer them something of great perceived value like, a free course, an ebook in return for their name and email address. This way you can keep in touch with them. The more times they visit your site, the greater the chance they will buy

8. Poor traffic targeting
Keywords play the biggest role here. Take the time and list your product benefits. Then find keywords that closely tie to those benefits. Also survey your existing customers to see what attracted them to buy. Find keywords which can attract more customers for the same reasons.

9. No testing or poor testing
When was the last time you tested your headline? How about your offer? Regular testing is necessary to improve your ad copy, your offer, your bonus your coupons, etc.

Remember that regular does not mean constant. Set a goal to test each item separately and at regular intervals, let say every 200 visitors or every 2000 visitors and not on a constant basis.

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